It is known to provide the current bus of the terminals with connector receptacles, which are positioned centrally symmetric to a common plane of connector receptacles which extends in the direction of the row of terminals. This connector receptacle plane in the usual case runs in a so-called “bridging shaft”, which is formed constructively in the housings of insulating material for the terminals in the row arrangement.
The bridging members are produced as multiple bridging members, i.e., they possess two or more connecting pins which extend but away from the bridge head of the bridging member like a comb and are centrally symmetric to a common comb extension plane, whereby the comb extension plane is equally covered when the bridging member is plugged into the connector receptacle plane of the terminals.
The bridge head of the bridging member is protected by isolating it by means of insulating material.
In the common connector receptacle plane of the terminals arranged in a row, it is also possible and known to bridge gaps, e.g., by means of a bridging member, in which a central connecting pin is broken away at a break-off site, so that the terminal lying thereunder in the terminal arrangement is skipped over by means of such a modified bridging member.
In the case of current bridges employing the known bridging members, problems may occur when the manufacturing tolerances are not maintained for the individual terminals or when relative displacements occur within an arrangement of terminals in a row next to one another, e.g., as a consequence of fairly large tensile forces on the conductor or as a consequence of other forces acting on individual or adjacent terminals, by which means, their current-bus connector receptacles may be moved out of the common connector receptacle plane of the terminal arrangement.
These possible tolerance inaccuracies and relative shifts can cause a weakening of the contact force and thus a weakening of the current transfer between connecting pins and the current bus in the “connecting pin/connector receptacle” contact system, in particular, when the bridging member with its connecting pins is a stiff punched-out part and the connector receptacles in the current buses are formed as spring-loaded connector receptacles (e.g., as externally spring-loaded connector sockets). In such a case, the possible tolerance inaccuracies and relative shifts may be directed against the spring force of the spring-loaded connector receptacle, which is usually subjected to a prestress, so that the connecting pin is not pressed with the necessary contact force against the contact bearing surface of the current bus when the bridging member is plugged in.